I think there are some good ideas here and I do have plenty to say about the whole framing/ranching that is rampant on this site and has been since its inception but I do not want to fill this post with an off topic rant and will instead be opening up a topic in the GD forum soon about this issue...
I will just quickly address a couple of things..
greenoaks wrote:there isn't a problem with farming NR's. people who do get reported and warned or banned. the system we currently have works fine.
unfortunately it does not work fine there is to much leeway in the rule..here is the rule and the reasons it does not work....
Lackattack's Ruling on Newbie farming - 1st January 2009lackattack wrote:"Newbie Farming" is the technique of setting up as many games as possible (either by starting or joining them) with New Recruits
This is a gross abuse of the game. It gives the New Recruit "victims" a poor first experience and reduces the chances of them sticking around. As farmers move up the scoreboard it also harms the competitive nature of Conquer Club - the scoreboard is meant to measure skill in the game, not "harvesting" techniques.(3 years later and we still have a scoreboard that measures harvesting)
In accordance with the desires and feedback of the majority of the community, our rules and as a new leaf for 2009, it is our New Years resolution to make Newbie Farming forbidden. Members who continue this practice will receive point resets and then progressively longer website bans.(Im still looking into all cases but as yet have not found any point resets/website bans)
If you don't officially receive a warning, consider this it...we may have overlooked you once, but we won't do it again.(my understanding of this statement is that you have been warned....but it seems like you could still get noted, then warned and then maybe warned again)
greenoaks wrote:if you believe that the current rules against farming are not working then give some examples of where it did not.
will send you a link to the new thread when its up..
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ok back on topic.....
I have thought about this and I think one of the big issues in all this is all the New Recruits that join up but then never play and just deadbeat out of whatever games they have joined and are never seen again....I would really like to get some numbers on this...
there is a simple solution to this...every new member that signs up for a freemium account is limited to one 1v1 game against another New Recruit (Classic Map..standard settings)...once they have completed this game then they are free to join there 4 games at a time...this would filter out all the deadbeating New Recruits before they are introduced to the general CC community and would eliminate a lot of C&A farming reports....
another plus would be it might increase the numbers that purchase premium..two Scenario's for you...
(obviously if someone signs up with a Premium account they can just jump straight in and play)Scenario (1)
I was introduced to the site about a year and half ago by a friend and after the first day/two of playing with my 4 game limit I had to buy Premium. there was at least a couple of deadbeating players in each game....
Game 7613071 &
Game 7613217 and it was taking forever for my turns to come around so I payed...
Scenario (2)
I introduced another friend to the site and he joined a few games but got pissed off at how long it was taking to get a turn and players just deadbeating...he did not enjoy the experience and just let his account deadbeat to...
also JOIN A GAME needs to filter better for New Recruits..
So I signed up for premium on day 2/3....and straight away clicked the JOIN A GAME tab and start just joining games at random from the first couple of pages and did not even look at the settings and the map. I think i just assumed its was all just variations on the classic map and settings where standard...so lo and behold I ended up in some real peachy games....
Game 7555464...(Nuke Spoils on Monsters)
Game 7579140...(Freestyle, Nukes on AOR2)
Game 7586962...(Stalingrad...nuff said)
if the JOIN A GAME tab filtered all these kinds of games to the bottom and had only games on standard type Maps with standard settings appearing at the top it would greatly increase the odds of a New recruit continuing to play and perhaps paying for premium
Now they could still use the Game finder tab to find whatever Map/settings they want to play but I imagine that most people who just joined the site do what I done and just hit the Join a game tab and start jumping into whatever games appear...
I think if both of these ideas where introduced it would be a step in the right direction....filter all the deadbeats out and giving all those freemium members a better first experience of the site...
Cheers Ace